Thiem Wins First ATP title in Nice, Bellucci Revs up with Geneva Title
Steen Kirby, Tennis Atlantic

Nice

The ATP World Tour welcomed yet another first time winner to the fold in 2015, as Austrian young gun Dominic Thiem won a well deserved victory in the final over Argentine Leonardo Mayer 6-7 7-5 7-6. The 21 year old, who is at his best on clay, could smell victory late in the third set, and he pounced on his opportunity, leaving Mayer frustrated down the stretch. Thiem improves to 1-1 in ATP finals as he lost in Kitzhbuhel last year, and it will be interesting to see how his over 2 hour triumph factors into his result at Roland Garros, where the attention will shift now.

Thiem lost just that one set to Mayer this week as he beat Victor Estrella in straights, got a retirement against Nick Kyrgios, and then routined Ernests Gulbis, one of his best pals on tour, and John Isner, as he dealt with the American’s big serve with great class. It’s pretty clear to me we will be talking about Thiem as a top 20 player in the near future.

Mayer, who was solid on serve this week, reached the final with quality wins over Lucas Pouille, Juan Monaco, and Borna Coric, all without dropping a set. He has struggled in 2015 thus far, but perhaps this result will signal a turnaround to his season.

Mate Pavic and Michael Venus won the doubles title over Horia Tecau and Jean-Julien Rojer

Geneva

Thomaz Bellucci has a knack for performing well in Switzerland, as the powerful Brazilian won his third ATP title in the country, and also the maiden Geneva Open title. Bellucci defeated Portguese #1 Joao Sousa in the final 7-6 6-4, Sousa was up a minibreak in the opening set tiebreak, and a break in the second set, but twice he failed to shut the door on Thomaz, and he stormed back to take the match without dropping a set.

This week the in-form Brazilian defeated Marcos Baghdatis in three sets, Denis Istomin in straights, Albert Ramos in 3 sets, and Santiago Giraldo in straights, as his last three wins came against solid clay court players. Sousa, who has a habit of making streaky runs and then struggling for weeks on end beat Joao Souza and Jurgen Melzer in straights, then battled past Pablo Andujar, and Federico Delbonis in tight three set encounters. Delbonis upset Stan Wawrinka in the quarterfinals.

Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah defeated Raven Klaasen and Yen-Hsun Lu for the doubles title.